NBC To Team With Charlize Theron & John Glenn For Modern Hatfields & McCoys Series

EXCLUSIVE: In one of the first major sales this development season, I hear NBC is finalizing a deal for a modern-day Hatfields and McCoys drama series project created by John Glenn (Eagle Eye) and produced by Charlize Theron and ABC Studios. The project, which has a significant penalty attached to it, reignites the centuries-old family feud in a contemporary urban setting. The Hatfields have risen to incredible wealth and power, while the McCoys are working-class. Dawn Parouse Olmstead and Beau Flynn are producing with Theron’s Denver And Delilah Prods through their deal at ABC Studios. The deal extends ABC Studios’ relationship with NBC, where it co-produced the drama pilot Beautiful People last season.

The sale comes a week after History’s three-part Hatfields & McCoysminiseries about the famous feud starring Kevin Costner and Bill Paxton broke basic cable ratings, averaging 13.8 million viewers over three nights. With its modern-day urban setting, the NBC project is not a Western, but its lineage will likely give it some of that flavor. NBC has been the most aggressive among the broadcast networks in the Western development arena, ordering period Western drama pilots for two consecutive years: The Crossing in 2011 and The Frontierthis year. Additionally, the network is now revisiting another Western script that didn’t make it to pilot this year, a drama written by Kerry Ehrin. Denver and Delilah’s slate also includes feature project Agent 13, which the company just sold to Universal, and Mindhunter at HBO with David Fincher, which is being developed outside of the ABC Studios deal. Theron and Glenn are with WME.